


change this lonely life (i want you to show me)

by daskey



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F, Oneshot kinda, patricia sucks, reigncorp endgame, sam centric
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-04
Updated: 2020-06-04
Packaged: 2021-03-04 00:33:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 819
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24534661
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/daskey/pseuds/daskey
Summary: Sam thinks she knows love.Then she meets Lena.aka the reigncorp oneshot inspired by 'i want to know what love is' by foreigner (but it's not as much of a meme as it sounds)
Relationships: Samantha "Sam" Arias/Lena Luthor
Comments: 8
Kudos: 76





	change this lonely life (i want you to show me)

Samantha Arias  _ thought  _ she knew love. 

Love was the sweet smell of fresh baked cookies in her lunchbox. At  _ least _ once a week she knew that kind of love. Or it was her school clothes being mended, stitched up by Patricia when she’d tear them being stupid on the playground (little girls don’t need to be so rough, Samantha). Pants that didn’t quite meet her ankles and shirts so small that she couldn’t lift her arms. That was love. 

Love was a firm hand on her arm at church (you better not say anything). It was “for your own good”, love was “you’ll go to bed without”. It was Patricia getting her to scrub the marks she drew on the wall (what do you mean you don’t remember drawing that? Do you think I’m a fool, Samantha?) with a wet cloth till her fingers locked up and the drawings were just a black smoky smudge.

Samantha Arias thought she knew love. Then she held her tiny, scrawny little runt of a daughter in her arms. Watched her screech out for air, and curl tender wrinkled fingers around her own. She watched her grow and it was then she realised. 

She couldn’t let Ruby do without. She made every dollar stretch so she could fill her plate till she got a job that was good enough. She tried to make sure her clothes were good enough, that they fit. Found them a bit bigger too, she’d grow into them. She let her be what she wanted to be. Let her tumble around in the dirt, kick a soccer ball around. And it made her happy, it made them both happy. 

Love wasn’t hard. It wasn’t cold. It wasn’t hard-handed and harsh. 

Love was “I’ll fix this. I’ll make you better.” 

It was being in a cold blue box and watching that forcefield go down, her own horror being replaced by a wave of emotions so thick she couldn’t think through it. All she could focus on was  _ her _ , hands on either side of her face, head against her own. 

Love was the  _ after,  _ too. It was Lena turning up to say one last goodbye and ending up in her bed, reluctant to leave. It was a dragged out goodbye that went without saying the word itself. 

Love waits. 

Love waits for her in somewhat warmer National City while she’s shoveling snow off her driveway in Metropolis so she can get Ruby off to school on time. Love waits while she goes and impulsively cuts her hair one night, freaks out about it, and decides to grow it back out. Love doesn’t judge when she can’t make a business trip to National City for a signing and instead she gets the documents sent by courier to the Metro office. 

Love  _ understands _ . 

Sam doesn’t understand what it is between them that stays simmering below the surface. She feels like an early human trying to understand the rumbling of the sky before a storm, looking up and deciding it to be an act of a being greater than herself. 

She calls it  _ love _ . They never name it. They never say the name out loud, as if the very utterance of it would make it cease to exist. But it’s there, beneath everything they do. It stays, while Sam is in Metropolis and Lena is in National City. She calls it that in her head and thinks herself childish, stupid. In above her head. She’s never known anything like this love, not ever. 

The universe explodes and then rebuilds again and Sam is there in Metropolis shoveling snow off her driveway when she spots a woman approaching her on the street. Shivering against the cold despite the heavy coat lined with thick, luxurious fur. Her nose is red and so are her eyes, and there are shadows and lines on her face that weren’t there before. 

But once their eyes lock, it doesn’t matter. The woman’s red lips tremble as she smiles, and her eyes begin to well up, and Sam barely has time to make sure her shovel doesn’t hit her car when she drops it before she’s moving forward to bring Lena into her arms. 

Love is a cold nose against her neck, and hot tears burning against her skin, arms that hug her tight enough to hurt and dark hair that slips so easy into her fingers as she rests a hand at the back of her head. 

It doesn’t end there. There are problems that need solving, a world that needs fixing. The universe explodes and then rebuilds itself but it isn’t without fault. But Lena is here, she’s  _ here  _ in her arms. The love is the patience and the waiting but it’s also  _ this _ , it’s the coming home, it’s the seeking of comfort, it’s more than hard hands and cold stares and a closed door. 

Sam Arias knows love. 


End file.
